This invention relates to severing apparatus, and particularly to apparatus for severing sheet material including paper, textiles, non-wovens, foils, foams and plastic materials.
Various devices such as knives, scissors, shears and other devices which use sharp cutting edges have been used to sever the paper or other sheet material. These sharp cutting edges are hazardous to the user. Over a long period of time the edges become dull and must be sharpened. In factories, it is often desireable to employ various severing devices to cut sheet material into convenient size from a dispensing roll. The severing device must protect the worker from the risk of being cut or injured, and yet must operate easily and quickly. Devices of this kind have been utilized previously. Typically, such cutting devices include a carriage on which is mounted a cutter wheel which cooperates with a cutter bar to shear the sheet material as the wheel moves along the cutter bar. Other devices include cutter blades mounted in a carriage so that as the carriage moves across the sheet of paper, the paper is sheared by the blades. While these devices have the general advantage of being relatively safe to operate, they have the disadvantage of requiring sharpening of the cutter bar or the cutter wheel. Another disadvantage is that the sheet material tends to bend over the cutter and to pass between the bar and the wheel without being sheared. This is particularly a problem when the sheet material is stronger than paper, such as textiles, non-wovens or plastic material.
In view of these disadvantages of prior art apparatus, it is an object of this invention to provide an apparatus for severing sheet material which is capable of efficiently and effectively severing not only paper, but also other sheet material including textiles, foils, foams, rubbers, non-wovens and plastics, and composite materials.
It is a further object of this invention to provide apparatus for severing sheet material which protects the users from possible injury and which minimizes wear of the components.